(a) Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a liquid crystal display.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display, which is one of the most common types of flat panel displays currently in use, includes two sheets of display panels with field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode, a common electrode, and the like and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween. The liquid crystal display device generates an electric field in the liquid crystal layer by applying voltages to the field generating electrodes, and determines the direction of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer by the generated electric field, thus controlling polarization of incident light so as to display images.
Among the liquid crystal displays, a vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display in which liquid crystal molecules are aligned so that long axes thereof are vertical to the display panels while the electric field is not applied has been developed.
In the vertically aligned mode liquid crystal display, it is important to secure a wide viewing angle, and to this end, a method of forming a plurality of domains is used by forming domain controlling patterns such as minute cutouts or protrusions in the field generating electrode. Since the cutouts and the protrusions determine tilt directions of the liquid crystal molecules, the cutouts and the protrusions are appropriately disposed and the plurality of domains having different tilt directions of the liquid crystal molecules are formed, thereby increasing a viewing angle and a visibility of the liquid crystal display.
Particularly, when the minute cutouts are formed on the pixel electrode to have a plurality of branch electrodes, the liquid crystal molecules in a central region of each domain may be easily controlled, but an aperture ratio of the liquid crystal display is reduced.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for improvement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form a prior art that is known to a person having ordinary skill in the art.